Topic: Bigger Balls

[invisiblesmoke]

For the game of foosball to mainstream and obtain Olympic approval it may be necessary to upgrade to a regulation golf ball. A golf ball is a bit bigger than an ordinary foosball, necessitating a slightly larger playing field.  This, in turn, would make the game a bit easier to televise.  And the sponsors of golf equipment might start funding foosball coverage.  Any thoughts?  What say you on it?

[Syronis]

If curling is an olympic sport as it is now, why can't foosball remain the same. With the developments in technology I have no doubt that you could get great television quality. Not on everything, but after a shot for example they could slow-mo it to show how it went in. The same with a lot of passes. I think it's not a matter of bigger balls or a bigger playing field, rather allowing time to show a replay of the pass and subsequent shot after each goal.

This would drastically slow down the pace of the game, but as far as televising foosball it seems like the most sound option, rather than trying to change the mechanics or table that it's played on. What you're asking for is like asking basketball to make their hoop 11' instead of 10' regulation.

[bbtuna]

no

[Will17]

a bigger ball and a bigger table is a terrible idea, i don't like it at all anyway. I agree that slow motion and higher speed cameras would be the best way to do it. Having a yellow ball and yellow man on warrior is a bad idea for viewing too. I like the idea of getting foos to the Olympics obviously, I think we have a better chance of that than of getting it televised. might be wrong on that though as I havn't looked into how hard that would be. Golf and foosball are unrelated, the best funding we could get is definitely from beer companies and energy drink companies. Guaranteed if Red Bull put on a big foos tourney it would have WAY more people at it than any current tour, and it would be mostly either newbie or college players. Get sponsorship like that and we might see foos make a breakthrough to the general public.

[gitablok]

I have been fortunate through my association with Inside Foos to be sitting next to Fox Sports and Mr. Savage, the guy who made the necessary changes to poker which has made it famous on tv. at one of the last worlds in Dallas. It seems their biggest worry was the speed of the game and being able to see the ball on tv. They were amazed at the skill level of play. One match they saw was Rico vs. Tommy.

At the World Cup in Germany, we witnessed on of these slo mo cams in action and for sure would be needed to televise. But at 30 or 40 grand at least, it's gonna take a large operation at a large price tag to pull it off.

Sponsorship is a must for anything to happen. Companies like Corona are a step in the right direction. An adjustment of attitude is gonna have to take place. When we are overseas the sponsorship is very evident, Radio stations, beer companies, casinos even. But their culture is football driven and table soccer is just an extension of it. In America, it's just a bar game. Redbull would be great because it is devoured in Europe also.

If we Americans can get over the "bar mentality" of the game and see it more as global sport, maybe we will in the future, see it televised. Until then.........

[Fastert]

I have been fortunate through my association with Inside Foos to be sitting next to Fox Sports and Mr. Savage, the guy who made the necessary changes to poker which has made it famous on tv. at one of the last worlds in Dallas. It seems their biggest worry was the speed of the game and being able to see the ball on tv. They were amazed at the skill level of play. One match they saw was Rico vs. Tommy.

At the World Cup in Germany, we witnessed on of these slo mo cams in action and for sure would be needed to televise. But at 30 or 40 grand at least, it's gonna take a large operation at a large price tag to pull it off.

Sponsorship is a must for anything to happen. Companies like Corona are a step in the right direction. An adjustment of attitude is gonna have to take place. When we are overseas the sponsorship is very evident, Radio stations, beer companies, casinos even. But their culture is football driven and table soccer is just an extension of it. In America, it's just a bar game. Redbull would be great because it is devoured in Europe also.

If we Americans can get over the "bar mentality" of the game and see it more as global sport, maybe we will in the future, see it televised. Until then.........

In Holland it's the same problem, table soccer is seen as a bar-or coffeeshopgame, same like darts use to be until Van Barneveldt won the Embassy and took darts to a higher level of interest for dutch sponsors and now its seen as a big sport in Holland or even Europe with big tournaments.

[foozkillah]

For the game of foosball to mainstream and obtain Olympic approval it may be necessary to upgrade to a regulation golf ball. A golf ball is a bit bigger than an ordinary foosball, necessitating a slightly larger playing field.  This, in turn, would make the game a bit easier to televise.  And the sponsors of golf equipment might start funding foosball coverage.  Any thoughts?  What say you on it?

Adjusting the camera zoom (remotely via BlueTooth even, if you wish) at the right angle can make the table field as big as your typical soccer stadium, so why would we change the ball size or other dimensions?  I believe the golf world would be more interested in a table or garage/basement floor golf game, rather than a table soccer game.

Sponsorship is a must for anything to happen. Companies like Corona are a step in the right direction. An adjustment of attitude is gonna have to take place. When we are overseas the sponsorship is very evident, Radio stations, beer companies, casinos even. But their culture is football driven and table soccer is just an extension of it. In America, it's just a bar game. Redbull would be great because it is devoured in Europe also.

I completely agree with the sponsorship need, myself having run a small no-entry weekly local with tri-annually sponsored larger tournaments for years with good sponsors.  These were all at a local hip college/downtown bar, called the Lost Weekend, in West Palm Beach with the downtown crowd and Palm Beach Atlantic University supplying the players.  Getting NewCastle Ale and later Grolsch to pitch in signs, hundreds of giveaway soccer balls, shirts, caps, etc., and BOTH prep & prize money really made promoting & running them a breeze.  Unique prizes like the Jupiter table from Grolsch and official NewCastle United (their Premier Soccer League team's) $300 Goalkeeper jackets really sweetened the pot.  They and the bar paid me well, too.

And yes, Red Bull or Monster would be the same type marketing-hungry entities today.

But what is this about slo-mo and replays?  Who's been hiding in a hole and doesn't know about YouTube, MySpace, FacePage, etc? Haven't these people heard of Google?  A considerable number of the foosball vids on YouTube and Yahoo! or AOL Videos already incorporate slo-mo replays and different view angles!  Putting slo-mo replays on online vids for entertainment or training purposes has already been done for years!  It's a trivial effect done by hundreds if not thousands of uploaders in their bedroom, home office or wherever.  11yr olds, for chrissake!

Any football or basketball playoff or championship game already has its crucial or notable plays immediately shown in slo-mo.  And I do agree that it is high time that Jim Stevens or any other foosball videographer put them in.  Hi-res hi-speed minicams mounted on the table ends or on the lighting support arms can easily be incorporated for closeups at different angles.

In fact, I am curious as to why Jim Stevens and others do not do just that, now that hi-res minicams are extremely affordable, since they would certainly make his vids that much more valuable as training aids, with two or more viewing angles.  Their basic DVD mastering programs already incorporate mixing synchronized tracks that allow you to switch or splitscreen combo multiple video streams AND slo-mo from multiple cams, and I mean dirt cheap basic freebie progs!

But then again, DVD's and even Blu-Ray are getting obsolete, so Jim & Inside Foos will probably concentrate on live and archived hi-speed vid feeds, less & less on DVD's but more towards selling subscriptions and/or downloads.  They don't really have any choice, anymore than BlockBuster or Sony Music or any number of porno publishers.

[Syronis]

Amen, is about all I can say to your post. I think the game, with major sponsorship, would be very easily televised. It's just a matter of getting ESPN or somebody to cover it. They cover bowling, billiards, and darts which I would consider to be in the same 'league' as Foosball. Sure they probably would only be interested in filming Pro Dbl/Singles at a large venue, such as the world cup or the worlds in vegas. What's needed isn't modification to playing, rather the drive to find these larger sponsors and to spark interest in television.

Even in poker what you usually see mass video of is the No-Limit Hold 'Em, even though the world series of poker has a multitude of games at different pay-in/out levels. Granted the amount of money paid out is more appealing than say, a sport like foosball. But with a big sponsor payouts for champions could be increased. I also believe that something as simple as a "table jacket" for sponsors could be employed. That way whatever table was used, they could simply slip some signage on the table. Only concern with that would be to make sure that the signage in no way obstructed the rods and gameplay.

I think that Foosball is generally unknown to the masses as well, the best thing that people can do is try to show people. Drag some friends to the bar to your local tournaments, or even try to get local people out to watch larger tournaments. You don't necessarily have to play foosball to have an appreciation for it, and I think even people who don't play could have an appreciation for the level of skill involved.  Having not attended a major tournament, does the general public usually know that a tournament is going on? Are signs hung around the town and community?

I would honestly probably subscribe to something like Inside Foos, especially if it offered matches and training videos. That way, you can watch what you want, when you want... and don't have to fumble through a DVD to find the match or information you're looking for.

[gitablok]

But what is this about slo-mo and replays?  Who's been hiding in a hole and doesn't know about YouTube, MySpace, FacePage, etc?Huh Haven't these people heard of Google?  A considerable number of the foosball vids on YouTube and Yahoo! or AOL Videos already incorporate slo-mo replays and different view angles!  Putting slo-mo replays on online vids for entertainment or training purposes has already been done for years!  It's a trivial effect done by hundreds if not thousands of uploaders in their bedroom, home office or wherever.  11yr olds, for chrissake!

Any football or basketball playoff or championship game already has its crucial or notable plays immediately shown in slo-mo.  And I do agree that it is high time that Jim Stevens or any other foosball videographer put them in.  Hi-res hi-speed minicams mounted on the table ends or on the lighting support arms can easily be incorporated for closeups at different angles.


What we are talking about is instant replays, not after the fact. This takes a special camera that is the size of a great dane and special software. Anybody can do a slo mo replay a week later. We were talking about as it is televised. This cannot be done with consumer equipment available today. Professional, yes. And like I said before, this is a 30 or 40 thousand dollar camera.

[Syronis]

If you look at alot of other secondary sports, they are rarely televised as a live feed. World Series of Poker is a prime example. They film thousands of hours of film, just to snip it apart and show the highlights. The same could be applied to foosball. Of course all of us here would LOVE to see Live foosball as it was being played, this however isn't as probable as the second situation. Take a lot of video and use what you can. Show the key matches, the quarters onwards. I think Foosball is at a point where any publicity is good publicity. I'm fairly certain that most of us talking about replay and slow-mo are under the assumption that an event could be recorded and then later televised. This would give time for editing, and picking out the exciting or more memorable matches, which would also make the game more appealing to new players.

[MR.STEVE]

If they can follow a hockey puck they can follow a foosball

[Syronis]

remember the "streaking" hockey puck of the mid 90's. HAHAHA good stuff.

[foosin joe]

well put my friend

no

[Old Meister]

Steve hit on what I was going to say. Make the ball glow on screen and then when a shot is made capture the "streak" of the shot so as to show how the shot was made and the shape of it. I'll talk to my son, he is a videographer  for a local TV station. He has a HD camera and does all the computer generations and such. It would be interesting to see how many frames per second that would be needed to show a quality replay.

[bmtran]

well considering the speed of the cameras and everything that they use for other events, I don't think it'll be any problem; they're pretty well-equipped.